Tumblr today announced a long-awaited update to its search function. The Yahoo-owned company says the feature has been rebuilt “front to back.”

Here’s what’s new:

You can now use multiple #tags in a single query to find all that #hello kitty #nail art. Searching for “government shutdown” now returns posts tagged #government shutdown or that mention “government shutdown.” Searching “#government shutdown” will limit the results to posts with that #tag.

Representing those words a bit more visually, the new search function looks like this:

Proper search for tagging is critical for a site like Tumblr, which would never have grown the way it did without tags. It would not surprise us in the slightest if Tumblr usage got a solid bump after today’s launch.

Also part of the search improvements is an update to filtering. Tumblr has made the explicit content filter more transparent: the option is now right on the search results page.

Smarter filtering doesn’t just help users, it also helps Tumblr. The company says the tweaks let it unblock innocuous keywords in its apps that used to be prohibited by app store policies.

Emil was a reporter for The Next Web between 2012 and 2014. Over the years, he has covered the tech industry for multiple publications, including Ars Technica, Neowin, TechSpot, ZDNet, and CNET. Stay in touch via Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.